In dental procedures during which either sedation or General Anesthesia (GA) is required, a patient may wear a nasal mask or hood via which a gas, such as oxygen or nitrous oxide, is administered to the patient. The nasal mask or hood may be a non-latex, soft, thermal plastic elastomer that covers the nose and is secured to the face via a gravitational pull of a bilateral inspiratory and gas scavenging suction system that hangs from around the patient's head and over the nose while in the recumbent position. Alternatively, other methods of sedation are accomplished without a nasal hood, such as a combination of nasal cannula for oxygen with oral, intramuscular, or submucosal modes of anesthetic delivery. During procedures that deliver anesthetics, it is important that the patient's airway and the delivery of gases are monitored closely because, in some instances, the effects of sedatives, narcotics, and the majority of general anesthetics decrease respiratory drive and can cause brief or prolonged periods of apnea.
It is well documented and widely accepted that the implementation of capnography increases the margin of safety for delivery of anesthesia. Capnography is the monitoring of the concentration of end tidal carbon dioxide (“ETCO2”) or exhaled carbon dioxide (“CO2”) of a patient in order to assess the physiological status and/or determine the adequacy of ventilation when under anesthesia. Nevertheless, due to the currently existing difficulties associated with monitoring ETCO2, particularly within dentistry due to the tools and work occurring in the mouth of the patient, practitioners do not commonly monitor ETCO2.
In addition to monitoring ETCO2, operators may be further interested in accurately sampling for and/or detecting the levels of other systemic biomarkers found within exhaled breath of a person under sedation or GA in order to assess a patient's status. Therefore, a means to accurately detect and monitor systemic biomarkers, such as ETCO2, within exhaled breath is desirable.